The Most Epic Birthday Present Ever!
by ArtemisOwl910
Summary: After a horrific incident involving bronze automatons and trees, Sophie is left paralyzed. She thinks she is worthless and that nothing in life will ever be fun again, and then her 15th birthday rolls around. Little does she know, her siblings have planned something to make her life a little more interesting... Set 8 months after the Giant War.


**An Epic Birthday Present**

The wake up horn that echoed around Camp Half-Blood every morning woke me from my slumber. Why did we have to get up at 07:30? Why not 9? Why not 10? I sighed and turned over in my bed, with the intention of sleeping for another ten minutes.

"Happy 15th birthday, Sophie!"

"AGH!" I yelled.

Standing above me, broad grins on their faces, were two of my fellow Cabin 9 campers, Nyssa and Harley. Nyssa's hair was a rat's nest and she was dressed in rumpled pyjamas. Harley, however, was dressed in his usual _Cars_ pyjamas and, instead of holding a teddy bear like most eight-year-old boys, he was holding a mallet.

"It's May 16th! Surely you didn't forget your own birthday!" Harley exclaimed.

"I might've done," I muttered.

"Come on," Nyssa sighed, "Let's get you to breakfast."

She and Harley helped me into my wheelchair, and we headed down to the mess hall. Oh, did I forget to mention that I'm disabled? Well, I am. I became paralysed from the waist down a few years ago, when a huge psycho bronze dragon (*cough* FESTUS *cough*) smacked me into a tree, breaking my back, whilst my half-siblings tried to get it under control. After that incident, we used traps instead. Even after Leo managed to tame Festus, the thing still terrified me.

When we reached the mess hall, my brothers, Leo, Chris and Jake, were already there. Leo had returned last January, after he had been missing for six months with Calypso (I like her - she's nice and good at helping in the forge) and Festus (I like him much less). Leo kept sniggering under his breath. It got on my nerves very quickly.

"Leo, what's the matter?" I asked eventually, one eyebrow raised.

"Jake, my dear brother, will you do the honours?" he asked.

Jake rolled his eyes. From under the table, he produced a wrapped box, which looked a lot like a briefcase.

"Happy birthday. It's from the three of us," he smiled.

By this point, Leo's incessant giggling had started to worry me. The present was probably a huge boxing glove on a spring that was punch me in the face when I opened it, or something similar. I ripped the brown wrapping paper apart. The gift was, indeed, a briefcase.

"Open it!" Leo laughed.

I braced myself for an explosion and quickly unlatched the lid, throwing it open. Inside was an assortment of -

"Grenades?"

The box had eighteen grenades overall. Three rows of six. The top row, labeled _STANDARD GRENADES - FROM CHRIS,_ was composed of, sure enough, standard, green grenades. The second row, labeled _Greek Fire - From Jake,_ was comprised of small jars filled with bright green liquid - explosive Greek fire. Finally, the bottom row, made up of small, black boxes, was labeled _FART BOMBS - LEO._

I glanced at my idiotic brother.

"Seriously? Fart bombs?" I said, raising an eyebrow.

By this point, he was laughing so much he couldn't breathe.

"Yeah," he gasped "Really deadly. Jake would know!"

Jake sighed "You said that you were worried about being useless in battle. Apparently, you suck at archery and using a crossbow. So we made you some grenades instead! And, about the fart bombs, yes. I do think they're deadly. Leo's been lobbing the dam things at me all week!"

I grinned. That certainly sounded like something Leo would do.

"I was testing them!" Leo complained.

"Did you really need to 'test' fifteen of them on me? I've had to take too many showers!" Jake exclaimed.

"Well, at least you don't smell after all those showers, Jakey boy."

Jake punched Leo in the shoulder. Harley looked excitedly at me.

"You're going to get our present later, Soph! It's going to be awesome!"

During free time, after morning activities, lunch and afternoon activities, Nyssa and Harley wheeled me down to Bunker 9, with Leo and Jake not far behind. Leo heaved open the huge doors, and we went inside. Inside the huge construction, a messy, much loved workshop was functioning. A few of the other Cabin 9 kids were inside the bunker, building automatons and other contraptions. On one circular worktable, a project was covered in a dirty, oil stained white sheet.

"Here we are!" Nyssa said, "Your present from the rest of us."

Harley pulled the cloth away. My eyes widened. The most epic wheelchair I have ever seen stood proudly. It was bronze, with a black leather seat, a cup holder, fancy wheels, a storage section underneath (fitted with a few of Leo's fart bombs), a knife strapped to the underside of the handles and lots and lots of buttons!

"Oh my gods!" I shrieked. Nyssa grinned.

"There's a parachute attached to the back. If you need to activate it, you press the square black button."

"Why would I need a parachute?" I asked.

"This baby can fly. It's got built in rocket boosters!"

I gasped, "I want to go in it. Now." Nyssa laughed.

"Let's get you in there, then, so you can try it out."

Nyssa put the awesome chair onto the floor and Harley helped me into it.

I steered myself out of the bunker.

Over the next few minutes, Nyssa gave me a step by step tutorial on how to work all the different buttons. Then came the time for me to try out the flying feature.

Harley gave me a quick hug. "Good luck!" he exclaimed.

I pressed the rocket shaped button to activate the boosters, just as my big sis had instructed. Sure enough, the boosters started up. I started ascending into the air. Once I passed the tree canopy, Nyssa yelled up to me.

"We'll meet you back at camp! Try to get there!"

"Thank you!" I yelled, "THIS IS THE MOST EPIC PRESENT EVER!"

I manipulated the controls and I was soon doing fancy tricks. I closed my eyes and felt the wind through my hair. For the first time since the accident, I got to relish a feeling that I hadn't felt in a long time - freedom.


End file.
